Releasing effect of iron(III) and other oxidants on the interference from nickel in the determination of selenium by hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry

Abstract

The releasing effect of iron(III) on the interference from nickel(II) in the determination of selenium has been extended to nickel concentrations commonly found in solutions of real nickel samples. In solutions containing 10 µg l^–1 of selenium(IV) and 1600 mg l^–1 of nickel(II) almost 80% of the sensitivity for selenium was retained if the solutions were made 1000 mg l^–1 in iron(III) and 2.5 M in hydrochloric acid. Alternative oxidants such as chromium(VI), thallium(III) and nitric acid were investigated, but were found to be far less effective than iron(III) in reducing the nickel interference.